The Water Mixing Track, a pedestrian small route, marked and signalized according to the International Standards, runs along the river banks of the Peneda and Veiga’s rivers, in the Gavieira’s village. Starting at the Beleiral Forest House, today converted into shelter and retreat house, we start through a track, with a strong natural landscape component, and also associated with an ethnographic symbolism of the mountain communities.
We pass in the Beleiral and in the Tibo’s places, but it is at the intersection of the Veiga’s river with the Peneda’s river and this with the Laboreiro’s river, where the inhabitants call the water mixture, that the route reaches its splendour. We found extensive fluvial space, feeling the power and the dynamics of the mountain watercourses. Inserting along the path in a vast and luxurious riparian habitat. Much of the route is covered in an extensive patch of oak and with the presence of a lush riparian forest consisting of Alders (Alnus glutinosa), willows (Salix sp.), Birch (Betula alba), Ash Trees (Fraxinus angustifolia) among other species. The faunal community, mostly associated with mountain water resources is diverse, as the otter (Lutra Lutra), Mole-of-water (Galemys pyrenaicus), Blackbird moorhen (Cinclus cinclus), common-Kingfisher (Alcedo atthis), Iberian Emerald Lizard (Lacerta schreiberi), Salamandra Lusitanian (Chioglossa Lusitanian), Iberian Frog (Rana Iberian), etc, are examples.
The landscape is strong, with changes throughout the year, highlighting the cliffs and steep, which on the slopes of valleys facing south enclose Mediterranean enclaves in the Peneda-Gerês National Park. It is in these slopes and Fraga das Pastorinhas, geologically considered a Bornhardt where nesting birds of prey.
For these paths, made in the old days, we suggest to the visitors a trip back in the time and in an Eden. Were trodden by smugglers, by the Galician workers looking for work here, in the crisis time, particularly in the period of the Civil War and in the Francoism and by the pilgrims on their way to the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Peneda and Entrimo Monastery.
It was in the Water Mixing, one of the SALTO’s place (back then, term used for people who fled illegally to another country), that a new world was opened.
Points of Interest:
The Beleiral Rural Community
Junction of Veiga with Peneda’s rivers
The Tibo Rural Community
Water Mixing
Typology:Small Route
Length: 4 km or 12, 6 km
Duration (hours – approximate): 2h00 or 5h00
Type of tread: sidewalks or trucker’s ways
Degree of difficulty: Easy
Starting point: Beleiral – Gavieira’s village
Arrival: Beleiral – Gavieira’s village
Location: Arcos de Valdevez
We pass in the Beleiral and in the Tibo’s places, but it is at the intersection of the Veiga’s river with the Peneda’s river and this with the Laboreiro’s river, where the inhabitants call the water mixture, that the route reaches its splendour. We found extensive fluvial space, feeling the power and the dynamics of the mountain watercourses. Inserting along the path in a vast and luxurious riparian habitat. Much of the route is covered in an extensive patch of oak and with the presence of a lush riparian forest consisting of Alders (Alnus glutinosa), willows (Salix sp.), Birch (Betula alba), Ash Trees (Fraxinus angustifolia) among other species. The faunal community, mostly associated with mountain water resources is diverse, as the otter (Lutra Lutra), Mole-of-water (Galemys pyrenaicus), Blackbird moorhen (Cinclus cinclus), common-Kingfisher (Alcedo atthis), Iberian Emerald Lizard (Lacerta schreiberi), Salamandra Lusitanian (Chioglossa Lusitanian), Iberian Frog (Rana Iberian), etc, are examples.
The landscape is strong, with changes throughout the year, highlighting the cliffs and steep, which on the slopes of valleys facing south enclose Mediterranean enclaves in the Peneda-Gerês National Park. It is in these slopes and Fraga das Pastorinhas, geologically considered a Bornhardt where nesting birds of prey.
For these paths, made in the old days, we suggest to the visitors a trip back in the time and in an Eden. Were trodden by smugglers, by the Galician workers looking for work here, in the crisis time, particularly in the period of the Civil War and in the Francoism and by the pilgrims on their way to the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Peneda and Entrimo Monastery.
It was in the Water Mixing, one of the SALTO’s place (back then, term used for people who fled illegally to another country), that a new world was opened.
Points of Interest:
The Beleiral Rural Community
Junction of Veiga with Peneda’s rivers
The Tibo Rural Community
Water Mixing
Typology:Small Route
Length: 4 km or 12, 6 km
Duration (hours – approximate): 2h00 or 5h00
Type of tread: sidewalks or trucker’s ways
Degree of difficulty: Easy
Starting point: Beleiral – Gavieira’s village
Arrival: Beleiral – Gavieira’s village
Location: Arcos de Valdevez
